1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a semiconductor device transporting and handling apparatus (commonly called IC handler) adapted to be used, in an IC testing apparatus (commonly called IC tester) for testing semiconductor devices, particularly, ICs (semiconductor integrated circuits) which are typical of the semiconductor devices, for transporting ICs for testing and sorting out and handling the tested ICs. More particularly, the present invention relates to an IC transporting apparatus, and to an IC posture altering or changing apparatus for altering the posture or position of an IC to an another posture or position (usually horizontal posture) used in transporting ICs to be tested (commonly called DUT) to a test or testing section in the IC tester, and also relates to an IC take-out apparatus used in taking out ICs from a magazine.
2. Background of the Related Art
In the early stage of ICs practically used, most ICs were what is called dual-in-line package (DIP) type wherein terminals of an IC housed in the package project from the longer opposite sides of the package which is of rectangular shape in plan and are bent downwardly substantially at right angle such that the whole configuration in section of the IC is of substantially angular "U" letter shape. For this reason, as an IC container for accommodating such ICs was used a square-shaped pipe-like IC container which is of substantially rectangular shape in section called a "rod-like magazine". Therefore, the IC transporting apparatus for transporting ICs to be tested to the testing section is so constructed that it can support the rod-like magazine in an inclined state from its horizontal state. In such IC transporting apparatus, the rod-like magazine is held on the inclined state on transporting ICs accommodated in the magazine so that the ICs are successively slid down by their own weights. That is, a procedure for transporting ICs utilizing the natural dropping force of each IC by its own weight has been taken.
However, because of the increased number of terminals due to the improved integration degree of an IC and of various kinds of terminal structures, it has been difficult to smoothly transport by utilizing the natural dropping procedure. For this reason, in recent trend, most IC handlers tend to adopt a horizontal transporting system. The IC handler of horizontal transporting system is such that ICs are received in a platter-like tray from which each IC is attracted by a pick-up head by the action of vacuum suction, and then the pick-up head is moved in X-Y direction by horizontal transporting means to transport each IC to a testing section of an IC tester provided within the IC handler.
By adopting the horizontal transporting system, an IC package of any shape could be easily transported regardless of the terminal structure of the IC package if the IC package is formed in flat shape so that it can be easily attracted by a pick-up means using the action of vacuum suction, even if the IC package has a structure that terminals are led out from the four sides thereof such as QFP. That is, a highly generalized IC handler can be constructed.
In case an IC handler of horizontal transporting system is practically operated, all ICs are handled in the state that they are received in a tray. That is, even in the outside of the apparatus, ICs are circulated and stored in the state that received in a tray for user (customer tray). Since the upper surface of the tray is open, ICs are easy to drop from the tray, and thus the handling of the tray is cumbersome.
On the other hand, since a rod-like magazine is a square-shaped tube, dropping of ICs can easily be prevented by closing both ends of the magazine. Therefore, a rod-like magazine is easier to handle in the stage of circulation. Accordingly, it is proper and safe to handle ICs in the state received in a magazine as much as possible in case the ICs have shapes that can be accommodated in the magazine.
In view of such background, as proposed in Japanese Patent Application No. 171911/1994 (Hei 6-171911), an IC handler of horizontal transporting system is recently beginning to be practically used, which can transport and handle, for testing, both of ICs received in a magazine and in a tray. In the IC handler of horizontal transporting system, since horizontal transporting means must be used within the IC handler, in order to construct the IC handler which is capable of transporting and testing both of ICs received in a magazine and in a tray, transfer or transshipment means must be provided in the IC handler for transshipping the ICs received in the magazine to a tray.
It is a general practice for taking out ICs from a magazine to incline the magazine so that the ICs received therein can run out of the magazine. Then the ICs taken out from the magazine are transferred to a tray. Therefore, it is necessary to transfer the ICs in an inclined position or posture to the tray in horizontal position or posture, and this alteration of posture of the ICs produces a great problem.
FIG. 15 shows an construction of a magazine-tray transfer section for transferring ICs from a magazine to a tray, i.e., a position or posture of IC altering section used in a previously proposed IC handler of horizontal transporting system which can be used in common for both magazine and tray.
In case of testing ICs received in the tray, a user tray 21 loaded with ICs to be tested is conveyed from a tray supply section 20 to a tray changing section 30 where the ICs are transferred from the user tray 21 to a test tray 31. This transfer or transshipment of the ICs are performed by horizontal transporting means 40. That is, the horizontal transporting means 40 has a pick-up head 41 attracting an IC by the action of vacuum suction (hereinafter referred to as "vacuum suction head") and transfers the ICs from the user tray 21 onto the test tray 31 by moving the vacuum suction head 41 up and down by means of an air cylinder 42 as well as moving the vacuum suction head 41 to an arbitrary position in horizontal plane by means of X-Y drive means (not shown).
Here, the reason why the ICs are transferred from the user tray 21 to the test tray 31 will be briefly explained. The user tray 21 is one which is used for accommodating ICs therein and for circulating the ICs loaded therein within a factory or plant or a market. For this end, the user tray 21 is made of a plastic material or the like, and the shape of each of recessed portions for receiving the ICs is formed larger in size than that of an IC to be received so that the ICs can be easily taken in and out of the recessed portions.
On the other hand, since ICs to be tested are applied a thermal stress of high temperature or low temperature on the path to the testing section 10 of the IC tester, the test tray 31 is made of a material that can be proof against the thermal stress. In general, the test tray 31 is constructed such that 16 to 64 IC carriers each of which has a recessed portion for receiving an IC are mounted on a metal frame. Each of the IC carriers is made of a thermal-resistant resin material, and has a mechanism added thereto for accurately positioning, holding and locking an IC to be tested once the IC is inserted into the IC carrier, and a function added thereto for exposing the terminals of the locked IC to the back side of the IC carrier and contacting the exposed terminals with the contacts for testing connected to the IC tester in the testing section 10, and the like.
As mentioned above, since the test tray 31 must have various functions, the ICs to be tested are transferred from the user tray 21 to the test tray 31. Further, the reference numeral 22 denotes tray transporting means for taking out a user tray 21 from the tray supply section 20 and for transporting the user tray 21 to the tray changing section 30.
The reference numeral 50 denotes a magazine supply section. A plurality of rod-like magazines 51 are stored in the magazine supply section 50 stacked one on another. The uppermost magazine 51 of the stacked magazines stored in the magazine supply section 50 is taken out and is placed on elevator means 52. The elevator means 52 which is rotatably supported functions to lift up one end of the magazine 51 placed on the elevator means 52 (right hand side in the example shown in FIG. 15) by the rotating operation thereof and to hold the magazine 51 in the inclined posture. At the lower end portion of the elevator means 52 in the inclined state thereof shown is provided a movable stopper 52A which is used to prevent the ICs to be run out from the magazine 51 until the magazine 51 is rotated and stopped at the predetermined inclined position. When the magazine 51 is set to the predetermined inclined position and is connected to a buffer rail 53 provided at an appropriate downstream position of the magazine 51, the movable stopper 52A is released (pulled down) so that the ICs are run out on the buffer rail 53 from the magazine 51.
An another movable stopper 53A is provided at the lower end portion of the buffer rail 53 in the inclined state. This movable stopper 53A operates to hold the IC positioned at the lowermost of the buffer rail 53. An escape rail 54 movable in the direction (lateral direction) orthogonal to the direction of movement of IC is provided at the downstream side of the buffer rail 53. On the escape rail 54 are provided, for example, four grooves substantially in parallel and juxtaposed with one another for receiving ICs. Each time an IC is received in one of the grooves, the escape rail 54 moves in the lateral direction so that total four ICs are received in the four grooves. The length of each groove for receiving an IC is the same as that of an IC package accommodating that IC. One IC is received in one of the grooves on the escape rail 54 by running the IC into the escape rail 54 from the buffer rail 53. In this state, since the IC positioned at the lowermost of the buffer rail 53 is stopped and held in that position by the movable stopper 53A provided on the buffer rail 53, the escape rail 54 can be moved in the lateral direction. By the movement of the escape rail 54 in the lateral direction, the IC received in the escape rail 54 and the IC on the buffer rail can surely be separated even if those packages are connected with each other by flashes or fins formed on both the packages. When all of the grooves of the escape rail 54 have received ICs therein, respectively, the escape rail 54 further moves laterally and transfers the ICs to a posture altering apparatus 60.
The posture altering apparatus 60 can be constituted by an arm 61 whose upper end is pivotally supported such that the arm 61 can rotate in a vertical plane as a rotating plane, drive means 63 supported at the lower end of the arm 61, a vacuum suction head 62 supported at the bottom surface of the drive means 63 such that the vacuum suction head 62 is movable linearly and reciprocatingly, and means such as a rotary air cylinder for rotating the arm 61 reciprocatingly over the range of an rotating angle of .theta.. The drive means 63 may be, for example, an air cylinder and linearly drives the vacuum suction head 62 so that it moves reciprocatingly along the axis of the arm 61.
The rotating angle .theta. is selected to be equal to an angle ranging from an angular position where the distal end surface of the vacuum suction head 62 comes to be parallel with the upper surface of the IC package supported on the escape rail 54 to an angular position where the distal end surface of the vacuum suction head 62 comes to be parallel with the upper surface of the carrying platform 65 which is on standby in a horizontal plane. The vacuum suction head 62 attracts an IC at the angular position where the vacuum suction head 62 faces with the IC supported on the escape rail 54 and then the arm 61 is revolved together with the IC attracted by the suction head 62 by the angle .theta. by the rotary air cylinder 64. By this rotating movement the posture or position of the IC is altered to horizontal posture or position. In the state of the horizontal posture, the vacuum suction head 62 is moved downwardly by the driving operation of the drive means 63 to transfer the IC to the carrying platform 65.
In the upper surface of the carrying platform 65 is formed a positioning recessed portion which is surrounded on four sides by upwardly and outwardly inclined walls. By dropping an IC down into the positioning recessed portion, the position of IC for a horizontal transporting means 70 located at next position in the course of movement of IC is defined. That is, upon receiving an IC from the posture altering apparatus 60, the carrying platform 65 moves in the direction of an arrow X and stops at the position A that is the starting point of transportation in the horizontal transporting means 70. A vacuum suction head 71 is on standby above the starting point A of transportation. This vacuum suction head 71 attracts the IC and transports the IC to the tray changing section 30 where the IC is dropped down into a test tray 31. Therefore, it is very useful for improvement of the operation efficiency or workability to define the IC position by the positioning recessed portion of the carrying platform 65.
Further, the escape rail 54 located at the downstream side of the buffer rail 53 has, for example, four to eight IC receiving grooves formed therein in the lateral direction of the escape rail (moving direction of the escape rail) in juxtaposition with one another. ICs are dropped one by one to each of these 4 to 8 grooves from the buffer rail 53. That is, each time an IC is dropped down into one groove, the escape rail 54 is moved laterally by one groove like pitch by pitch feeding manner. When all of the IC receiving grooves are filled with ICs, the escape rail 54 is further moved laterally and the posture altering apparatus 60 is activated. Therefore, 4 to 8 vacuum suction heads are also mounted to the posture altering apparatus 60 and hence the postures of 4 to 8 ICs are altered at a time. In addition, the horizontal transporting means 70 also has 4 to 8 vacuum suction heads 71 and is arranged to be able to transfer 4 to 8 ICs at a time to the test tray 31. The number of ICs is, however, not limited to 4 to 8.
As described above, in the previously proposed IC handler of tray/magazine combination type, the carrying platform 65 and the horizontal transporting means 70 are provided as means for transporting ICs to be tested supplied from the magazine 51 through the buffer rail 53 and the escape rail 54 to the test tray 31, and hence there is a shortcoming that the components of the apparatus are increased, and the cost thereof is high. In addition, since the carrying path of the ICs supplied from the magazine 51 is long, the time required for transporting the ICs is long. As a result, there is a disadvantage that the time duration of testing the ICs received in the magazine is long.